From the distance, I watched the Hill Tribes' people plant in flooded parcel of land crops. Being half-way bent down and under the intense rays of the hot sun, they walked in mud while their feet sank way above their ankles. These people were planting herbs of a rich green color from which the seed of these plants would later become rice!

The scenes around me were right out of a text book. Stunning! I was seeing for the very first time rice fields and how people cultivated them for consumption. It was awesome in every sense of the word and being curious enough, I had to take a closer look.

By walking on elevated rows of earth, I quickly made my way around different square sections of flooded land before eventually finding myself closer to these Hill Tribes’ farmers. They appeared undisturbed by my presence and continued planting non-stop the crops. Michel quickly followed suit and together, we watched the process.

If it wasn’t for me stopping him, Michel would have taken his sandals off, lifted his pants and joined them in the mud. It was getting a little bit late and it was time to leave and head back to Chiang Mai.

As promised, our taxi driver was waiting for us right where he told us he would. We quickly boarded the back of the truck and once more, settled on the hard metal benches while our fellow driver stepped on the gas pedal and away we went back on the same rugged road we came here from.

From the rugged countryside roads, the paved roads of the highways were eventually switched to which brought us all the way back to Chiang Mai, a good hour and a half later! My private little outing of this morning might have been done and over with but that didn’t mean the end of the day.